Rutgers travels to Michigan State for 1st dual meet of season

The Rutgers swimming and diving team takes its finish from its first-place win at the Justin Jennings Invitational into a dual matchup against Michigan State.

Earlier this month, the Scarlet Knights had multiple pool records broken, as well as many first-place victory events in their meet, beating all four of their opponents by more than 400 points each.

Hoping to bring its success from the previous outing, Rutgers will go on to face the Spartans in East Lansing, Mich. on Oct. 26 with swimmers such as junior Francesca Bertotto, who made multiple pool records at the meet.

Another player to keep an eye out for is freshman Terka Grusova, who finished in first place for both the 100- and 200-yard backstroke events. This success will hopefully carry over for her against the Spartans.

The key to the Knights' success in this matchup will be their ability to do what they do best. But, as cliche as that might sound, head coach Jon Maccoll has done a good job of putting his swimmers in events that they are most likely to win, or at least succeed.

If the coaching staff can keep making the right choices, and the swimmers do their best to push themselves in every heat, then Rutgers will have the potential for great success on Friday.

Another Knight to follow this week is coming from the diving end in senior Marin Bloise. The Malvern, Pa. native has many diving titles, including the 3-meter diving title at the ECAC Championships that was held at Rutgers on Feb. 23 this past year.

At the annual Frank Elm Invitational last season, she scored a career-high 270.95 points in the 3-meter diving event, finishing eighth overall. She hopes to take her past accomplishments and carry them into the pool next week against Michigan State and claim even more titles for herself and the Knights.

Back at the other end of the pool, another swimmer to keep an eye out for is the junior from Bridgewater, N.J., Alexis Brewer. After last year's strong finish in the Frank Elm Invite, where she broke many of her personal records, her strong strides will do her well as she faces off against the Spartans.

The last swimmer to watch is junior Alexandra Fabugais-Inaba. The Oakville, Ontario native holds the current program record in the third leg of the 400-yard freestyle relay, from last year's Big Ten Championships.

As this is Rutgers' first time facing off against the Spartans in swimming and diving in a dual meet since joining the Big Ten, it should be competitive. But, hopefully for the Knights, they will leave Michigan with the win and maybe even a few new records.

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